immigration

November 16, 2018 -
The federal government's 287(g) program has put some 15,000 undocumented immigrants in deportation proceedings in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. But following a grassroots campaign by the immigrant-rights group Comunidad Colectiva, county residents voted to unseat their pro-287(g) sheriff for one who's promised to end participation.

November 2, 2018 -
Echoing Trump, Republicans across the South and country are stepping up anti-immigrant rhetoric in the final stretch of the 2018 elections. The goal is to boost turnout of GOP base voters this year, but evidence is growing that hardline immigration politics will weaken the party in the long run.

August 30, 2018 -
CoreCivic's Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, has become infamous for its poor living conditions. A group of elected officials from Durham, North Carolina — all women of color — recently traveled to the rural facility to learn more about what their constituents face if arrested by ICE, and to consider how to prevent that from happening.

June 22, 2018 -
In the current moment of moral clarity over the immigration crisis, Bob Libal, executive director of Texas-based Grassroots Leadership, sees an opportunity to demand fundamental transformation of a system that criminalizes people of color.

June 8, 2018 -
Muslims and immigrants are among the most vulnerable groups, not just in the U.S., but globally. As a human rights activist and attorney, Azadeh Shashahani has worked for over a decade to combat attacks against these communities and to organize them to build power.

June 7, 2018 -
Two Southern communities that once embraced a federal program that lets local police enforce federal immigration law signaled their rejection of it in recent sheriff elections. To see which communities have been involved in the program, we mapped state and local participants nationwide and over time.

May 11, 2018 -
Living near ICE’s Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, I see buses carrying detainees all the time, and no one is ever looking out the window. Where would you look if you were being sent back to the place you were so desperate to escape?

March 29, 2018 -
For years, Southern state legislators have tried to defend racial gerrymandering by claiming that it's required by the Voting Rights Act. Now the Trump administration is pointing to the same law to justify a new census question about citizenship.

February 2, 2018 -
A Haitian American who grew up in Miami's Little Haiti, Francesca Menes serves on the Black Immigration Network's steering committee, working to ensure the voices of U.S. immigrants from throughout the African diaspora are heard by policy makers. She discusses how to seize this unusual political moment to build real power.

October 31, 2017 -
Political observers are keeping a close eye on Virginia's governor's race for signals about next year's midterms. But it's not the only critical seat up for grabs in November's off-year elections. Here are seven key races, state and local, to watch across the South.